Best time to visit Greece: Athens and islands

Greece has long, dry summers and mild winters almost everywhere, but the country is not uniform. Athens on the mainland gets very hot in July and August. The Aegean islands such as Santorini are cooled by the sea and the summer wind, and Rhodes in the far south-east is the warmest of the islands in this comparison in winter. Corfu in the Ionian Sea in the west is greener and much wetter in winter. We analysed the weather from 2015 to 2024 at four places.

The short answer

• Best time: May to June and September to October. Warm enough for the beach, not yet or no longer hot, with little rain.
• High summer (July and August): 33 °C by day in Athens, 28 °C on Santorini, practically no rain – and the busiest weeks on the islands.
• Spring (April): good for Athens and sightseeing, at around 20 °C; the sea is still cool.
• Winter (December to March): mild at 12 to 17 °C by day, but many island hotels and tavernas close and ferries run less often. Good for Athens as a city break.

Greece's climate: all 12 months

Temperature and rain: monthly averages 2015–2024 from the ERA5 reanalysis (via Open-Meteo), rounded. A grid cell is about 25 km wide; for small islands like Santorini it lies largely over the sea, so days come out slightly cooler and nights milder than measured in the villages.

The mainland heats up the most: Athens is more than 5 degrees warmer than Santorini by day in July. On the islands the sea evens things out – Santorini only varies between 13 and 28 °C over the year. In winter Rhodes is the warmest of the four places at 14.7 °C in January.

Rain is the bigger difference. The Aegean is dry: Santorini gets only 1 to 6 mm a month from June to September and 24 mm even in November. Corfu, on the other hand, catches the weather fronts from the west and gets 309 mm in November – more than four times as much as Athens.

Greece month by month

April and May

Spring is the best time for Athens and the archaeological sites: 20 to 25 °C by day, green hills and wild flowers. The islands slowly open for the season; the sea is still fresh in April. Around Greek Orthodox Easter many Greeks travel, and ferries and hotels fill up.

June

For many the ideal month: Athens reaches 30 °C, Santorini 25.8 °C, and it barely rains anywhere. The sea warms up, days are long, and the main summer rush has not started yet.

July and August

Peak season. Athens averages 33 °C by day and 23 °C at night; in heatwaves it gets much hotter. Sightseeing in Athens is best done early in the morning. On the Aegean islands the meltemi, a strong northerly summer wind, often blows – pleasant in the heat, but it can make the sea rough and delay ferries. The UK travel advice warns of a high wildfire risk from April to October. In August, when many Greeks are on holiday themselves, the islands are at their fullest.

September and October

The second best time: the sea is at its warmest after the summer, Athens drops from 28.6 to 23.4 °C, and the crowds thin out. In the Aegean it stays dry; on Corfu rain increases noticeably from late September. Many island hotels close at the end of October.

November to March

Mild but changeable: 12 to 17 °C by day from December to March, with most rain in December and January. Athens is a good city destination in winter with fewer visitors at the sites. On the smaller islands much is closed. More warm destinations for this time: warm places in November.

Which region when?

• Athens and the mainland: April, May, October – sightseeing without the summer heat.
• Cyclades (Santorini, Naxos, Paros): June and September – warm, dry, wind usually moderate.
• Dodecanese (Rhodes, Kos): May to October – the longest beach season of the places compared, warm into October at 25.3 °C.
• Ionian Islands (Corfu): June to September – green island, but from October markedly wetter.
• Crete: has its own climate and long season – see our best time to visit Crete.

For island hopping, ferries are the backbone; on Rhodes, Corfu or Crete a hire car^* makes it easy to reach beaches away from the main resorts.

How YesTrip helps with this trip

In YesTrip you plan Athens and your islands day by day on one map, for example two days in Athens and five days on Naxos and Santorini. The forecast for your travel days shows when heat or strong wind is coming, so you can move the Acropolis visit to the early morning or swap a boat trip for a beach day. The packing list suggests clothes for the weather. Travelling as a group, you share the trip and log shared expenses like ferries, apartments and the hire car.

Before you go

• Entry: Greece is in the EU and the Schengen area. British visitors need a valid passport; check the current rules on gov.uk.
• Flight: From London a direct flight to Athens takes approx. 3.5 hours. Greece is two hours ahead of the UK.
• Power: 230 volts, sockets type C and F. From the UK you need an adapter.
• Mobile data: a travel eSIM^* can be cheaper than roaming, depending on your UK provider.

More destinations by month: Best time to visit: where to go when.

To match a route to your dates, see our 12-day Cyclades route, with ferry times and advice on the meltemi.

If you start in Athens, our day trips from Athens show which ferries and sites are worth it.

* Ad – Partner link: if you book there, we earn a commission. Your price stays the same.